


Better Than Before

by ballpoint



Category: Avengers, Marvel 616
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-21
Updated: 2011-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-20 15:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/214147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballpoint/pseuds/ballpoint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol/Wanda, she remembers again, but it might not be the same as before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Than Before

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Muccamukk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muccamukk/gifts).



> Characters and distinctive trademarks thereof belong to Marvel, Disney.
> 
> No money is being made off this work.

"So, are you just going to just stand there and stare at her, or will you be speaking to her any day now? Which ends with a 'y'?"

Carol did not move from the window, the slight inclination of her head the only nod to Jess' question. In the gardens of the mansion, Wanda glided, her bearing as regal as the consort she would have been to Victor von Doom if he had had his way. Ever since she came back to the mansion, Wanda took to wearing white instead of her usual scarlet. Today was no exception- shoulders covered by the froth of cap sleeves, the rest of her limbs bare and golden. Carol's eyes fell on Wanda's wrists, turned up towards the sun, a basket in the crook of her hand, as she pruned and gathered from the bright plumes of flowering bushes.

"Fine," Jess continued,as she dropped into one of the comfy chairs in the study. Ever since she became a mom, Jess gave herself over to comfort, feet resting on a hassock, her hands joined across her stomach with linked fingers. "Do the creep, never mind that Wanda's been here for the past week and you haven't said boo."

"What can I say?" Carol hugged herself with her arms, unable to drag her stare away from Wanda. Wanda, still beautiful, hair a deep red in dim light of the sun, limbs golden against the white cotton dress she wore, gathering flowers with colours bright as the feelings which flared between them once, before everything went to hell.

"I dunno," Jess' voice now sympathetic, less brusque. "But the Young Avengers risked life and limb to seek her out, the least you can do-?"

"That was stupid, and dangerous," Carol finally turned to look at Jess, who had a copy of Entertainment Weekly to hand; on the cover some current heart throb. "They had no right-"

"They had every right," Jess peered over the cover of her magazine, the glint in her eye a warning to Carol. "To do what they needed to do."

"Certain things - not everything needs to be disturbed,or-"

"It's done. So deal. Now are you going to talk to her, or keep looking out the window, with a hand over your heart like Dimmesdale? I'm too pretty to be Chillingworth."

It took Carol a couple of seconds, but she got there soon enough, and gave a short, bitter laugh.

"See the hill, take the hill, right?" Jess gave a fist pump.

"Hooyah."

* * *

 

Jessica Jones could be crude, Carol grumbled as she landed on the grass of the gardens that evening- but smart. Very smart. They couldn't go on like this, seeing each other's movements from the corner of their eyes, or when they had to speak to each other, have their greetings exchanged like presents between estranged family members - polite and strained. The air as humid as if someone just turned the shower off after a long, steam filled experience of a shower, and Wanda pulling a watering can, heavy enough for her muscles to be taut, veins stood out as if they were tapped into sharp relief against skin with heavy fingers.

"Here, let me," Carol said, because that she could do. Carry the strength of planets on her shoulders if she needed to, and a heavy water bucket with shower sprout was no problem.

"Carol," Wanda's fingers relaxed, her nails gently scraping along the backs of Carol's hands, and Carol fluttered her eyes closed, pulling the bucket away.

"Tony has sprinklers for this, you know?"

"I know, but with everything so different-" Wanda frowned for a minute, before waving the matter away. "It feels good to hold on to something familiar. Like -"

"Watering plants in the evening."

"Yes."

"How do I do this?"

"Point at the roots, just so. More damp than drowning. It's -"

"I'm sorry," Carol whispered.

Wanda dropped to her knees, the tips of her fingers touching the soil of the nursery in the shadier part of the garden at this time of the evening. The shoots were young and strong, transplanted from the green house into the garden, with sticks stood straight in the ground like soldiers.

"No, you did well," Wanda said. "The soil is damp, not wet, and -"

"No," Carol knelt beside Wanda. Downwind from Wanda, the sweetness of her perfume, which reminded her of honeysuckle and apple, tickled her nose. Wanda's scent had changed, a bit more earthier- Carol supposed, what with the diet she enjoyed while in Wundagore - but still snatches of sweetness.

"I mean, what happened-" Carol looked straight at Wanda for the first time since she came back. Wanda had always been beautiful, even back then towards the end with wildness in her eyes. But now, she looked serene, calm, as if the experience at the hands of Doom only made her stronger, more sure. Just _more_ of herself and it pulled at Carol's heart.

"I- I should have been the one to find you."

"I did things," Wanda's voice grew light at the understatement. "You can't be blamed for being repulsed by that."

"You were right, you know," Carol blinked away the sting of tears. "We failed you, I-"

"There were wrongs committed on both sides."

"You can't. You can't just forgive."

"I haven't said I have," Wanda stuck her hand in the soil, and gently raked its surface with splayed fingers. "But I can be responsible this time around, and I will. I'm stronger, and I'm wiser. I'm no one's pawn on a chessboard anymore."

Carol studied Wanda's face, the steel in the set of her shoulders that had never been there before, her lips pursed with the thought, and she saw the truth there. "You've changed."

"No one stays the same, Carol. That's not even in the realms of probable."

"I know." Carol rocked back on her haunches, the knees of her combat bottoms cold and wet with damp earth."No one should, not really. But I wish-"

"Things were the same, before-"

"No," Carol laughed, and waved Wanda's comment away. "Then we wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't be you now. Stronger, as you say. Wiser, and more in control. To wish otherwise would be cruel."

"You were never cruel," Wanda lifted her eyes to Carol, and laid her hand across Carol's. Carol didn't have to look down to feel the coolness of soil, its crumbly, semi grandular texture with the heat of Wanda's hand. "You could- can be hard, but not cruel."

"I never moved to find you, that's cruel enough."

"No," Wanda leaned forward, and pressed her lips against Carol's cheek. Carol closed her eyes at the contact, and with a shuddering gasp, moved her face so that her lips met Wanda's, her hands reaching out and touching curves and soft,sweetened flesh. Wanda she breathed, her friend's name like a prayer, like penance, finished with a plea. Wanda opened to her, leaned in, a stutter of lips as they skimmed, snagged.

"Wanda," Carol drew her close, tumbling under a close dark sky and soft grass, with the scent of flowers and soil in their noses, seeping into clothing. "I'll make it right," she swore, framing Wanda's face in her hands. "Let me make it right somehow."

"You've already done so," Wanda said, and although she didn't lower her eyes like she used to, her cheeks flushed from the strength of her emotion.

Carol drew Wanda close, and kissed her again, not caring if the grass tickled and brought wetness to the back of her shirt and trousers. Wanda was back, and in her own way - the best way- the same woman as before.


End file.
